http://news.google.com/?ncl=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8566848/&hl=enBush is panicking. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place: he can never admit he made a mistake - but that means he has to stick up for a guy who at the very least has jeopardized national security, and at the very most has committed treason during wartime. Not a good image for the party whose main claim to fame is that they're "strong on national security." Bush promised last year to fire the person who leaked - and now whenever he gets asked about this promise, he's so scared he just clams up and refuses to talk.
The talking points coming from Rove's lawyer either fall flat or get his client into more trouble - and they contradict RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's talking points. The RNC talking points (basically "Rove had to out Plame because Wilson lied when he said that Cheney had sent him") are a straw-man argument: Wilson never said Cheney sent him - and Wilson's main story (that Iraq never sought uranium from Niger) was proven right - so right that the White House had to retract the "16 words" and Tenet had to fall on his sword. Hardly anyone in the media is even swallowing the RNC talking points this time - except for the usual koolaid drinkers at Fox and WSJ.
Former RNC chair Gillespie said it's bigger than Watergate. Nearly all Republicans in Congress are afraid to comment - they've been ordered to support the White House, but that doesn't mean they're going to go on the record supporting a potential traitor.
A Zogby poll has 42% ready to impeach Bush if he misled us into war - higher than the number supporting impeachment during the Monica craze. An AOL poll has 73% saying the Rove scandal is "damaging" and another 17% saying it's "embarrassing" - making a total of 90% saying "This is some heavy sh*t".
The gaggle is finally turning against McClellan. Novak sang to the grand jury - and now phone records might show he was coached in the days before he testified. Ari Fleischer is being called back to talk. Air Force 1 phone transcripts have been subpoena'ed. Bush and Cheney both have retained private criminal defense lawyers. Fitzgerald may now be looking into who fabricated the phony Iraq-Niger-uranium intel - and some people have speculated it might not lead to Italy, but back to Cheney's office. Miller's source probably wasn't Rove - and some people are now wondering the person she's covering for came from Cheney's office. One intriguing aspect which Fitzgerald is quietly persuing is WHIG - the little-known task force called known as the White House Iraq Group which may have been concocting phony intel on Iraq (click on the link below left for more info).
Cheney is MIA and in full coverup mode about his health - never went to the Vail clinic, then admitted he did go but just to visit his buddy the knee doctor - then finally admitted he had an EKG.
Rove's lawyer Luskin is leaning hard on the phrase "not knowingly" to get his client off the hook. Turns out, Luskin himself got in trouble for accepting half a million dollars in gold bars from a client who had been convicted of laundering drug money through precious metals dealers. He knew it was illegal to knowingly accept stolen assets as payment for attorney's fees - so back then he (unsuccessfully) peddled the "not knowingly" defense as well. And Rove's insistence that he was speaking on super-duper double deep background indicates that he "knew" full well that it would be illegal to have any of his fingerprints all over this one.
This one is big and it's not going away. Republicans don't know how to play by these kind of rules. They're used to playing offense, not defense. They're used to sliming political opponents in the media - but that doesn't work against a special prosecutor. They're used to going against crybabies like Durbin - but this time they're up against Wilson, Fitzgerald, some reporters who are starting to wake up, and probably some very pissed-off CIA agents as well.
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